Due to go on course, dd exclusively bf

[hibbledibble]

Dd will be 5 months old when the course takes place in month. I have never even tried to give her a bottle of expressed breast milk. I didn't get on with expressing first time around, and find it far easier to just breastfeed.

I'm now dreading what I am going to do with this course. It is pretty expensive, and I don't think it would be possible to take her with. To further complicate it, it is in another town, and we have an older dd too. So dh would have to come with older dd, and either hang around and bring dd back for feeds, meaning older dd would get very bored, or I would have to try dd on bottles.

Wwyd?

Should I cancel the course?

I had to go to an interview when my ebf baby was 7 weeks old. It was only a morning away but I left her with parents and the gave her formula. She drank it happily. Now she won't take a bottle at all (6 months) but I haven't tried leaving her again. I bet your baby will take formula from a bottle ( or expressed milk if you prefer - I got mastitis when I tried expressing though so I'm not a big fan myself) when you go.

Just need to think about how to stop yourself getting engorged and you will need plenty of breast pads!

It is for 2 whole days!

I'm wondering how it will work, especially as the bottles will have to be sterilised, & made up in a strange place. Ready made formula isn't vegetarian, so I don't want to give dd that.

I would cancel the course. My DD was ebf and flatly refused bottles/cups of all forms, whether expressed or formula. She is 11 now and still ahs never drunk milk!!

I would get DH to ale both of them nearby I sure there are thing she could find to do, play ground, lunch, soft play for two days.

You will prob have to express regularly for your comfort so you might was well feed her :)

Can you get anyone else to come? Or just take baby with you. I was inyour situation & my ds came with me plus mil. (he was second too) Dh looked after older child. I found the course facilitators were v understanding.

The plan was for dh and dd to come, I'm just wondering about the practicalities.

Having someone else come for dd2 would be a good idea, but it would be extra expense, so I'm wondering whether it would be easier to cancel.

I'm dreading being away from dd2, she has never been away from me yet.

How often does dd2 feed now? That will be the real issue as to how practical it will be for you to feed her during the course, more so than having the family keep occupied.

They are bound to have fun, there's always something to do, even if it is a play park. You don't say how old DD is but she'd have to be pretty old and world weary not to find staying in a hotel exciting. My two (8 & 3) are happy with just watching the tv in a new place, let alone getting out and about and finding new things!

With ds1 I went back to work at 4m so was expressing from 6 weeks onwards and he took to the bottle no problem and had no other liquid except BM until he was over a year. DS2 hated bottles/cups/anything other than the breast with a passion and as I was taking a whole year off I didn't press the issue. At 5mo he literally did starve himself for 10 hours while I was away on a field trip. He took about 2oz in the whole time and screamed constantly according to DH.

Dd2 doesn't have a routine, we are doing on demand feeding. How often she feeds varies. The more I think about this, the less likely I think it is to work.

Dd1 is 4. We were hoping she could go with dh to a local attraction with dd1, but this would of course depend on dd1 taking bottles.

I went on a two day course when DS was 5 months old and he was ebf. DP spent the day with him and I bf him during the breaks - he was demand fed too but could easily manage two hours between feeds, and he'd always feed whenever I put him to the breast, even when he didn't seem hungry. Just leaving him behind wasn't an option because of engorgement.
I definitely wouldn't cancel the course, I think it can be done in your situation too!

I'd say either cancel.

Or go without her. You need to concentrate on the course, and it's only 2 days.

To do this, you need to prepare:

• start expressing now and have a stash of your own milk in the freezer
• see if you can get hold of Nanny (the goat based veggie friendly formula, that isn't sold in UK any more as it's not deemed suitable as entire diet. But which will be absolutely fine as emergency back up for 48 hours)
• remember to take pump with you, to express and discard during the scheduled course breaks.
• ignore the faff of sterilising etc. You won't be the one doing it!

cabbage I would ideally like to do that, I just worry that dd1 will get bored if I did that.

The other option would be to leave her behind, but that feels a bit mean, especially since her friend lives in the town we are going to.

Will you get a refund? If so cancel. If not, I'd take dh and older dd, and they will have to hang around and be a bit bored ready to appear every break time for you to feed baby dd. Mine wouldn't take a bottle at that age - even though dd had taken the odd bottle as a tiny baby - at 5 months they know the difference, even with expressed milk, it's the bottle some of them just don't like. I wouldn't bother with the faff of bottles anyway for 2 whole days tbh! (If you can avoid it).

Viking I don't think I could leave her for 2 days, she is just too little.

trex I could get a refund now, minus a small administration fee.